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Message
Posted
...blocking in?
I've seen a method used, often by portrait painters, of say sketching in the picture without colour or tone, and then perhaps an eye or two, completely filled in, in full colour. Presumably the artist moves on to the next feature.
I'm trying to work out the benefit of this against blocking in adding shadow and tone, before finishing off the details. I mean in the first approach, what if the eye is in the wrong place, or if the tones don't work together?
I would have said it was a modern method, but there even exists some unfinished masters like this.
Posted
There are many ways of starting a portrait: some like to paint an eye first, believing that this will help them to establish the character of the sitter early on; some lay down a base colour, Terre Verte used to be quite common, or Raw Umber, and pick out the details in white before glazing colour over it (much easier when we could still get lead white); some block in the overall shape in something like the flesh colour, then build up their picture from there. And there are doubtless other methods.
I wouldn't have thought there was any particular advantage to using the method you describe, though I suppose if the eye(s) have a characteristic look to them, it might help to get that in early - but then again, it might not; it's just a personal approach - if a particular method has worked, you'll probably try it again. I've painted few enough portraits, though I've drawn a good many, to be pretty sure that I've not used this method - and I don't think I'm likely to try it, though I'm short of a portrait subject right now: volunteers, forward!
Posted
I think each artist is different. As Robert said, there are multiple other ways. Above all, don’t worry about the colours at first, but I do like them to be lighter than the overall picture, so I can put the darks mostly in the right places without trying too hard to obliterate what I have already laid down.
Things become in the wrong place the more you tighten up in your work. Painting loosely is very forgiving, but you pay for it as you tidy. As far as the eyes, I like to put something there to determine and make sense. The more complicated the picture, the more the initial confusion until you add and take away enough to see where you’re at.
Edited
by Martin Shaw
Posted
Usually I start on the face before anything. With alla prima, which is most of my work, I fill in the background as soon as I have the proportions right. I would do the same with the hair. Sometimes I’m two thirds of the way through before I block in these aspects, or I end up ruining some of my work, especially with dark colours.
The above picture is soft pastel
Edited
by Martin Shaw
Posted
Norrette, I don't think I would ever start a portrait with an eye then complete it before moving on to the next stage of it. There are many ways as said. I tend to get the lights and darks in once the initial sketch is done, working on it as a whole. I took a couple of hours away from an oil painting I'm working on at the moment. The reason why, I came across the word Verdaccio. So, because I always like to learn, I did a sketch and used greens to tone it. So, somewhere down the line, I may try a painting. This was a pastel I did this afternoon.
